May 16, 2007

Korean invented Chinese characters?

I’ve just read some comment and someone was wondering where the claim “Korea invented Chinese characters” nonsense came from.

It was the last year when blogs and forums started pick up this story. Then a few news sites picked up this issue [ for example here in Japanese] as “funny” news. Unlike in South Korea, many considered it as a rumor or a joke. But Koreans are known to claim [fill in this blank] originates from Korea, so many believed Koreans actually claimed that.

So, a guy(a writer) did a through research [in Japanese] on this. Where all this started? Is it an urban legend or not?

Here is the summary.

About the claim “Korean invented Chinese characters”

It was introduced by the article [in Chinese] from People Daily (official newspaper from CCP). According to the article,

Not only Korean scholars claimed Korean invented Chinese Characters but also they suggested to register Chinese Characters to UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Many are saying “Koreans are trying to prove their supremacy though stealing our culture.”

The article seems to be referring to this forum post. However, the oldest post was posted in august 2002 by Sukgeun Jung.

He has posted to multiple forums and Usenet multiple times. Here is the one of the examples “Koreans invented and developed Chinese chracters.” His e-mail address [**spam**skjung**buster*@wam.umd.edu] suggests he belongs to the University of Maryland.

In China, this forum post [in Chinese] seems to be the first to introduce the Korean claim.

There are so many points to be debunked, but personally, I think it is really sad and unfortunate mentality for someone (a Japanese or a Korean or a Chinese) to require ancient/ancestor’s glory in order to have self-confidence.

Well said.

[update]

Do you think Sukgeun Jung is the only one to claim that? You won’t be dissapointed.

Like this:

Related

Why do so many Japanese care so much whether the Koreans invented the Chinese characters? One Korean scholar used probable historical evidences to make a point. Besides this there is another recent discovery that the ancestors of the Koreans were called “Su-Ma” – found in some old text writeen in Chinese chareters and it desicribes some of these Su-Ma people migrated west – and some Koreans think they became the original SuMArians – backed up by an old reginal belief that the Sumerians looked more like the “chisese” So eat your heart out if this would also make you jeolous HAHAHA

Not too long ago, on Korean TV, there was 1-hour history show: it claimed Japan went berzerk (crazy) when old Japanase style emperor tombs were rencenly discovered in Korea. These lare odd shaped (a circle joined by a triangle – like the shape of a keyhole) were supposedly unique to Japan and the Japanese scholars had boasted only Japan had such peculiar shaped emperor tombs. Some Japanese scholars even went on claiming this is a proof that Japan did own a land in Korea at one point in history. A wishful thinking. Supposedly, this was a big news in Japan.

This program was shown on KBS and many Koreans saw it too.

Indeed there were many of these odd shaped tombs discovered in the Southwest of S. Korea. Then the scientists did the carbon dating and the tombs in Korea were at least several hundred years older than the oldest ones found in Japan.

As a viewer I thought that those tombs were found in the Baeg-Je area of the old 3-kindom time. We hear endlessly their Baeg-je emperor and his entourage went to Japan when Baeg-Je was defeated. We also hear endlessly that the original Japanese emperors were Koreans. I perosnaly think these defeated Baeg-Je rulers were such rulers of Japan – or at least in one area of Japan. And these tombs are proofs or… is it your custom let’s not talk about these tombs any more!

If you are that confident, say history AS IS and admit it – do not twist it or hide it or even worse, lie about it! China had their line of Emperors from well…. the Mongolian stock. No big deal and they don’t hide this. If you are really confident.

Again, Young Gun. Your comment does not seem to be worth replying.. You are just telling you don’t know a thing about Korea(n history)..

I’ll just give you a link. It’s a Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo introducing a book written by a Korean History professor admitting the tombs in Korea were in fact Japanese tombs. The article also mention Korean Historians hide the tombs because Koreans historians were afraid of admitting Japanese were, AGAIN, right about history.

Koreans are known to claim [fill in this blank] originates from Korea.
lol. I agree with you.
They are good at making jokes.
A nation that despire to find a culture ground to stand upon. Otherwise they might just fell. So badly.
That’s understandable.
But, remember to steal from Japanese, because they won’t pass on the truth.
Don’t steal from Chinese, because Koreans will never know how high is the mountain and how deep is the water in China.
不知天高地厚。

The sort of “Uriginal” mentality is reflection of their inferiority complex.

As for the keyhole shape tombs found in Korea, Korean historians backfilled the tombs because they found out the tombs were newer than the ones in Japan which could back up “Southern Korean peninsula was occupied by Japan” theory.LOL

I don’t get it… are they not satisfied with their invention of kimchi? surely, they know deep down that they are just talking non-sense, but still they try… this I pity them, because they are liek the homeless, they have nothing so they must steal to give them a sense of existence.